about Rick Miller

RICK MILLER trained in Montreal as an architect, actor, musician, and playwright, and has performed in five languages on five continents. He is the host of ABC’s hit primetime series “Just for Laughs”, and Entertainment Weekly has called him “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”.  As artistic director of WYRD Productions, an internationally-acclaimed company devoted to multi-disciplinary theatre, he has created and performed shows such as Art?, Slightly Bent, Into the Ring (co-created with Dawson Nichols), and the worldwide hit MacHomer.  The two latest WYRD Productions have been co-creations with award-winning director Daniel Brooks and Necessary Angel Theatre Company: Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL.  Rick is also a frequent collaborator with renowned director Robert Lepage, having worked on such plays as La Géométrie des Miracles, Zulu Time (co-created with Peter Gabriel), on the film Possible Worlds, and on the new play Lipsynch, now touring internationally.  Here are some of the shows Rick and WYRD are touring and/or developing:

LIPSYNCH:  Robert Lepage, Rick Miller and 8 other actor/writers from around the world have created this monumental 9-hour production that has toured Canada, the USA, the UK, France, Spain, Australia and Russia.  Upcoming dates incude Montreal, Vienna, Naples and Taipei.

MacHomer:  150 cities, 700 performances, over 500 000 fans... Few solo shows have enjoyed the runaway success of Rick Miller’s MacHomer, a hilarious mash-up of “the Simpsons” and Macbeth.   Upcoming news:  a 15th anniversary tour and (finally) an Off-Broadway run.

Bigger Than Jesus:  Rick Miller and Daniel Brooks’ internationally-acclaimed solo show, (winner of 3 Dora Awards in 2005) has been touring internationally since 2004. Miller has performed the show in 4 languages: English, French, German and Italian, and a feature documentary is currently in development.

HARDSELL:  The second Miller/Brooks (and WYRD/Necessary Angel) collaboration received its world premiere in Toronto in April 2009, and an international tour is in the works.  Check out HARDSELL.org in the coming months for new web design, outreach materials and a media literacy campaign.

SPEER:  In Miller’s 5th collaboration with Robert Lepage, they set their sights on Hitler’s famously repentant architect Albert Speer.  Lepage directs Miller in a hypnotic solo monologue covering Speer’s 20 years of imprisonment in Spandau, Berlin.  Development will continue into 2010 and 2011.        

Rick is one of Canada’s most respected multi-disciplinary performers, with credits ranging from classical theatre to the avant-garde, from musicals to live comedy, from voice work to film & television. He has been called “one of Canada’s most dazzling performers” (Toronto Star), and the “most virtuosic voice in the country” (Edmonton Journal). Rick’s many voices can be heard in hit cartoons such as Atomic Betty (Sparky), My Big Big Friend (Bongo) and Magi-Nation (Orwin, Freep, Ashio).  He lives in Toronto with his wife Stephanie Baptist and their daughters Vivian and Ellen.